Slip Up
by AuereusUna
Summary: Sandy overhears Seth and Ryan taling and one of the boys slipsup.Nice little oneshot.


**Hey there guys! This little oneshot idea has been buggin me for awhile so I decided to write it. I hope its okay. Its all un-beta'd. Its pure me! LoL Hope ya like**

**Disclaimer: Me own The O.C.? Yea right. Why would I write fan fiction whe I can have the real thing do what I want. So, no. I own not a thing in this story.**

* * *

It was a normal day in the Cohen plus one household; but it was one that Sandy would never forget. Most of the day had passed without incident. Kirsten and Sandy had headed to work while Ryan and Seth had gone to school. Sandy had actually been able to come home quite early due to the lack in pressing cases at work. The boys had called earlier and said that they were going down to the pier to hang out with some friends. Sandy didn't mind because that meant that he would get some alone time in before the kids or Kirsten got home. Of course Sandy loved his family more than anything else and was prepared to do anything for them. But the Cohen family? Yea, everyone needed some quiet time once in awhile in this family. So he took the time to do as he hadn't done in awhile. He got some more comfortable clothes on and grabbed a beer and settled down to watch some mind-numbing television.

Later that evening the boys had gotten home from the pier. He was in the kitchen making himself a sandwich, seeing as he didn't know when Kirsten would be home, not that she would cook anyways, and the boys had told him that they would have dinner out tonight. He heard the front door opening and shutting and voices heading his way. He was laying the cheese on his sandwich when the boys had come into the kitchen.

"Hey Dad!" Seth called out, acting very Seth-like.

"Hey boys. Did y'all have fun at the pier?" Sandy replied, pausing in his sandwich-making to look at the boys. Seth was bobbing about, with his hair looking mussed about. Ryan shook his head at Seth's inability to sit still and answered the question.

"Yea, thanks Sandy," he said. Then something came over Ryan's face. Sandy could tell that Ryan seemed to have remembered something. Either that or he REALLY had to go to the bathroom. He was brought out of his musings by Ryan speaking in a suddenly different, almost urgent, voice. "Actually, me and Seth were heading to the pool house, weren't we?" With a look at Seth that told Seth to agree with what Ryan was saying. Of course it would have said that to him had he been looking at Ryan. But Seth was, a bit, oblivious. Sandy could tell that Seth was about to respond in the negative, when a flash of pain went across his son's face. After the pain came comprehension as he finally took the hint and agreed.

"Uh, yea. Poolhouse. Bye," he rambled as he led the pair out of the kitchen shooting curious glances back at his foster brother.

"Okay," Sandy said. Although he may be older than them, he wasn't stupid. Obviously, Ryan wanted to tell Seth something that Seth had no idea about and had trod, or stomped on his foot to get Seth's attention. Sandy, figuring it was just something trivial, headed back into the den to catch up on some more television.

* * *

A little while later, the phone rang. It was Kirsten asking Sandy to come and help her bring some stuff home from the office. He agreed and went to change. He was almost out of the door when he realized that he needed to tell the boys where he was going and to remind them not to leave while they were gone. As he approached the pool house he heard Seth exclaim, "C'mon! You're not serious."

With that Sandy stopped in his tracks, hoping he wasn't about to bust in on the boys having an argument. Sandy knew it was wrong, but with Ryan's weird behavior before and Seth's exclamation he wanted to make sure everything was okay and that the kids weren't in trouble. Again. Then he heard Ryan's softer voice speaking.

"Seriously, listen though. Marissa told me this afternoon that she heard her mom on the phone talking about our dad. She said that she heard Julie…." Ryan was cut off by Seth.

"What did you say?"

"Huh? I haven't gotten to anything yet," he said, obviously annoyed by his tone of voice. "What?" he asked again at Seth's face.

"Who did you say her mom was talkin' about?" Seth asked.

"Sandy…..you know tall, dark hair, big eyebrows, married to your mom," Ryan replied sarcastically. When Seth didn't reply, he asked, "what's up man? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Never mind," Seth mumbled. "You were saying…"

But Sandy didn't hear the last part of the conversation. In fact, Sandy didn't hear anything after Ryan's slip. Obviously the boy hadn't even known he had said it. Which meant that he had meant it. It was one of those unconscious slips that sometime come out in conversations. But this slip. Wow, this slip meant the world to Sandy. He could hear Ryan's voice echoing in his ears. _Our dad_ he had said. Sandy made it over to one of the patio chairs, his knees weak for some reason. After everything that had happened, after all of the trials and suffering, Ryan felt at home. Sandy had thought that maybe it would be impossible for this bright but obviously scarred kid to ever come to see himself as part of the family, seeing as family probably doesn't exactly have the best connotaions for him. But apparently Sandy had been wrong. Suddenly Sandy felt like skipping with joy. Figuring he couldn't go in and see the boys, _his sons_ a mental voice added, without acting manically happy and grabbing Ryan into a bear hug, he thought it best to leave a note instead.

As he drove off to meet Kirsten with a HUGE smile on his face, he replayed what he had heard over and over again.

_Our dad, our dad, our dad, our dad_

**Hope ya liked. BTW, if anyone knows some really good Ryan-angst family comfort kind of stories can ya tell me. I REALLY like thos kinds of story. Thanks for reading. Feel welcome to reply. _Nudge Nudge_**


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